The present invention relates to an electrical connector. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electrical connector such as a circuit board electrical connector to be mounted on a circuit board.
Patent Reference has disclosed a conventional circuit board electrical connector described. The conventional circuit board electrical connector is disposed on a circuit board for receiving a flexible flat cable (FFC) from above, so that the circuit board is connected to the FFC. The conventional electrical connector disclosed in Patent Reference includes a housing, a guide member attached to the housing to be slidable, an actuator rotatably attached to the housing, a plurality of terminals arranged and held in the housing, and a plurality of ground members arranged in the housing.    Patent Reference: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-190596
In the conventional circuit board electrical connector, the housing has a receiving hole for inserting the FFC from above, and the receiving hole passes through the housing in a vertical direction thereof. The terminals held are disposed in the housing and held on one of two sidewalls of the housing. The sidewalls are parallel to each other in a lateral direction of the housing, i.e., in a terminal arrangement direction.
More specifically, in the conventional circuit board electrical connector, terminal receiving grooves are provided in one of the sidewalls so as to extend through in the vertical direction. Holding sections of the terminals are pressed in the terminal receiving grooves from a bottom portion of the housing, so that the terminals are held in the housing. Each of the terminals has an elastic arm portion, which extends upward in the receiving hole from the bottom portion of the housing, and a contact section is formed at a tip of the elastic arm portion for elastically contacting with the FFC inserted from above.
In the conventional circuit board electrical connector, each of the ground members includes a straight section extending along an outer surface of the other of the sidewalls, a curved section folded back across an upper end part of the other of the sidewalls from an upper end of the straight section, and a ground contact section extending downward from the curved section along an inner surface of the other of the sidewalls.
In the conventional circuit board electrical connector, a ground attachment section is formed in the housing so as to protrude from an outer surface of the other of the sidewalls. The straight section of each of the ground members includes a securing section at a position close to the bottom portion of the housing, so that the ground attachment section holds the securing section. In addition, the upper end portion of the other of the sidewalls between the ground members extends upward, so that a ground receiving recesses is formed in a groove shape at a position of each of the ground members. Accordingly, the curved sections of the ground members are held in the ground receiving recesses.
In the conventional circuit board electrical connector, when the FFC is inserted in the receiving hole of the housing from above, the ground contact sections of the ground members are pressed against the FFC, so that an upper side portion of the straight section from the securing section to the ground contact section becomes elastically deformed to be slightly away from the other of the sidewalls of the housing.
As described above, in the conventional circuit board electrical connector disclosed in Patent Reference, each of the ground members includes the curved section that is folded back across the upper end of the other of the sidewalls of the housing. Accordingly, a height of the ground member is larger than that in a case when the ground member is made to have a dimension substantially the same as the housing.
In addition, as described above, the upper end portion of the other of the sidewalls between the ground members extends upward, so that the ground receiving recesses is formed in the groove shape for holding the curved section of each of the ground members. Accordingly, the height of the housing becomes larger by a dimension above the upper end section to form the extending section. Furthermore, the ground attachment section to hold the straight section of the ground member is formed protruding from the outer surface of the other wall. Accordingly, the dimension of the housing becomes larger in a thickness direction of the sidewall. As a result, an entire size of the conventional circuit board electrical connector increases in the height direction and the thickness direction.
In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a circuit board electrical connector capable of increasing a spring length of a terminal without increasing an entire size of the circuit board electrical connector.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the present invention.